Can the Military Help Clean Up Mexico?
Rene Perez, a clerk at a downtown car rental counter in Tijuana, Mexico, grew apprehensive as police recently approached the door of his house in this rough-and-tumble border city. Citizens interacting with police is hardly news. But this is Tijuana, an anything-goes city of 2 million and ground zero for North America’s long problem with illegal drugs. Ruthless gangs here fight each other and the authorities over dibs on lucrative international trafficking routes for cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines. Their allies: police compromised by millions of dollars in bribes, or intimidated by years of violent retribution by drug lords. Yet the cops who swooped down on Perez had a much more mundane mission: returning a wallet snatched by a mugger and found at the scene of a subsequent drug shootout. Marvels Perez: “[The police] were actually investigating the crime.” What Perez witnessed experts believe is the start of a sea change for Mexico. The anti-trafficking and anti-corrupt
